The Christian Quotation of the Day

Ryle: hating sin

2012-02-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Meditation:
    Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
    —Romans 12:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How much we ought to hate sin! Instead of loving it, cleaving to it, dallying with it, excusing it, playing with it, we ought to hate it with a deadly hatred. Sin is the great murderer, and thief, and pestilence, and nuisance of this world. Let us make no peace with it. Let us wage a ceaseless warfare against it. It is “the abominable thing which God hateth.” Happy is he who is of one mind with God, and can say, I “abhor that which is evil.”
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. Luke, v. I, Ipswitch: William Hunt, 1858, p. 209 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to hate my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: Thou hadst no youth, great God

2012-02-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, February 15, 2012
    Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730
Meditation:
You, O LORD, reign forever;
    your throne endures from generation to generation.
    —Lamentations 5:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
            Thou hadst no youth, great God,
        An Unbeginning End Thou art;
            Thy glory in itself abode,
        And still abides in its own tranquil heart:
    No age can heap its outward years on Thee:
Dear God! Thou art Thyself Thine own eternity!
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), Hymns, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1877, p. 18-19 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You reign supreme forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the secret of communion with God

2012-02-14T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
    Feast of Cyril & Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 & 885
    Commemoration of Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
Meditation:
    Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
    —Habakkuk 1:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I come now to declare what it is wherein peculiarly and eminently the saints have communion with the Father; and this is LOVE,—free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the saints; this they are immediately to eye in him, to receive of him, and to make such returns thereof as he is delighted withal. This is the great discovery of the gospel: for whereas the Father, as the fountain of the Deity, is not known any other way but as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin, nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him,—here he is now revealed peculiarly as love, as full of it unto us; the manifestation whereof is the peculiar work of the gospel.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost [1657], in Works of John Owen, v. II, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 19 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill my heart with Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: the Spirit acts on humanity

2012-02-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, February 13, 2012
Meditation:
    The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
    —Luke 1:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One notable limitation of the sphere assigned to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, as compared with Hebrew and Jewish literature, is that it is nowhere described as the agent of creation or as a cosmic principle. It does not act upon external nature, and it stands in no causal relation to the physical universe. God made the world and all things therein (Acts 17:24; Rom. 1:20); and both Paul and John conceive Christ or the Logos as the medium of creation and as the reason and end of the universe (1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; John 1:3; cf. Heb. 1:2). But in their teaching, as in the rest of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit acts only upon humanity. In one instance only was it conceived as acting in any way in the physical sphere, where it mediated the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35), and that act lay within the sphere of human life. Otherwise its operations lay entirely within the field of conscious experience. The Christian Church realised the fact of the Spirit first as a living, present, overpowering, unique, and exalted experience.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 84 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit animates the whole church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Machen: all is denied

2012-02-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, February 12, 2012
Meditation:
    When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
    —Luke 24:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It makes very little difference how much or how little of the creeds of the Church the Modernist preacher affirms, or how much or how little of the Biblical teaching from which the creeds are derived. He might affirm every jot and tittle of the Westminster Confession, for example, and yet be separated by a great gulf from the Reformed Faith. It is not that part is denied and the rest affirmed; but all is denied, because all is affirmed merely as useful or symbolic and not as true.
    ... J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), What is Faith? [1925], Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1962, p. 34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is true. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: love free from self-interest

2012-02-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, February 11, 2012
Meditation:
    Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him...
    —Job 13:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Those who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus—love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xi., p. 104 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my life’s treasure. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: gateways to the heart

2012-02-10T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, February 10, 2012
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire
    but my ears you have opened;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you did not require.
    —Psalm 40:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A basic trouble is that most Churches limit themselves unnecessarily by addressing their message almost exclusively to those who are open to religious impressions through the intellect, whereas ... there are at least four other gateways—the emotions, the imagination, the aesthetic feeling, and the will, through which they can be reached.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 216 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak to me through all things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: variety in the servants

2012-02-09T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, February 9, 2012
Meditation:
    But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
    —1 Corinthians 12:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Every complexion of the inward man, when sanctified by humility, and suffering itself to be tuned, and struck, and moved by the Holy Spirit of God, according to its particular frame and turn, helps mightily to increase that harmony of divine praise, thanksgiving, and adoration, which must arise from different instruments, sounds, and voices. To condemn this variety in the servants of God, or to be angry at those who have not served him, in the way that we have chosen for ourselves, is but too plain a sign, that we have not enough renounced the elements of selfishness, pride, and anger.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 172-173 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust Your hand in the composition of the Body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: Christ in the unexpected

2012-02-08T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Meditation:
    Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
    —Mark 9:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian life ... is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places. And these discoveries are sometimes most profitable when you find Him in something you had tended to overlook or even despise.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), The Journals of Thomas Merton, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 563 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are revealing Your presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Coleridge: Romans

2012-02-07T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Meditation:
    Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
    —2 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I think St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans the most profound work in existence; and I hardly believe that the writings of the old Stoics, now lost, could have been deeper... You will smile, after this, if I say that I think I understand St. Paul; and I think so, because, really and truly, I recognize a cogent consecutiveness in the argument—the only evidence I know that you understand any book.
    ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Table Talk, 2nd ed., London: John Murray, 1836, p. 237 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my mind to the understanding of Your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Campbell: drawn to Jesus

2012-02-06T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, February 6, 2012
Meditation:
    When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
    —Matthew 27:54 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our Master was his own Gospel. Men came to Him one by one attracted by the winsomeness of Jesus. He spake, of course, as never man spake, and He was as never man was, and, as has been well said by one who has a right to speak upon such subjects, he reversed our ordinary experience about our human ideals. The nearer we draw to an individual, as a rule the more plainly we see the flaws and the crevices in his character; but the nearer men drew to Jesus the more His faultless excellence declared itself; they were drawn to Him, they hardly knew why, with a reverence and a devotion unexampled in the history of the world.
    ... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), City Temple Sermons, New York: F. H. Revell company, 1903, p.195 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your character is incomparable. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buechner: the greatest miracle

2012-02-05T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, February 5, 2012
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
    —John 3:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The greatest miracle that Christianity has to proclaim is that the love that suffered agonies on that hill outside the city walls was the love of God himself, the love of God for his creation, which is a love that has no limit, not even the limit of death.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Magnificent Defeat, Seabury Press, 1966, p. 89 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the Vine

2012-02-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, February 4, 2012
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
    —John 15:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No worst thing ever done in the name of Christianity, no vilest corruption of the Church, can destroy the eternal fact that the core of it is the heart of Jesus. Branches innumerable may have to be lopped off and cast into the fire, yet the word “I am the Vine” remaineth.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Malcolm: a romance, Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1875, p. 248 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may you yet reap fruit from my branch. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rousseau: the Scriptures

2012-02-03T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, February 3, 2012
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
    —Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Peruse the books of philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how meager, how contemptible they are when compared with the Scriptures! The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration.
    ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Emile, or, On education, UPNE, 2009, p. 147 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word shames the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: until the Spirit rules all

2012-02-02T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, February 2, 2012
    THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
Meditation:
    For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
    —1 John 2:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Most of our conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and practical aspects of our life separately instead of realising them as parts of one whole. If our practical life is centred on our own interests, cluttered up by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a sense of our own rights and importance, or anxieties for our own future, or longings for our own success, we need not expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this. The soul’s house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are few sound-proof partitions in it. Only when the conviction—not merely the idea—that the demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, comes first and IS first, rules the whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory, and drowning all the quieter voices by their din.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Spiritual Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1985, p. 33-34 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cover my distractions. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: personal holiness

2012-02-01T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
    He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
    —Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    (Continued from yesterday)
    [We look for a time when Christians] will consider and practically remember, that all Christians are “called [to be] Saints,” and endued with the Holy Spirit of God; not indeed to inspire them with a new revelation, or to confer any miraculous gifts, (which do not either prove, or make, the possessor the more acceptable in God’s sight,) but to enable them to purify their own hearts and lives. The wicked Balaam was a prophet; and the traitor Judas worked miracles. These extraordinary powers, therefore, are neither any proof of superior personal holiness, nor any substitute for it in God’s sight. Nor is the absence of these miraculous gifts in ourselves, any argument that a less degree of Christian virtue will suffice for our salvation, than was required of the Apostles.
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 159-160 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the sign of Your presence is written within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Whately: the future of Christianity

2012-01-31T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
    Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888
Meditation:
    But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
    —1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Meanwhile it is a great consolation to us to look forward, as I think we are authorized to do, to a time when not only the knowledge of the Gospel will be greatly extended, but also, the influence of the Gospel on Christians’ hearts, and tempers, and lives—“the knowledge and love of God,” and the “fruits of his Spirit,”—will be still much more increased;—when those who are Christians in name, will be much less disposed to content themselves with the name,—much more careful to be Christians in principle and in conduct, than the far greater part of them are now:—when Christians, generally, will not look, as they are apt to do now, on the Apostles and others of the early Church whom it is usual to distinguish by the title of Saint, as possessing a degree and a kind of Christian excellence which it would be vain and presumptuous for ordinary Christians to th! ink of equalling. (Continued tomorrow)
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 158-159 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are our hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: truth in consummation

2012-01-30T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 30, 2012
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
    —2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we accept the authority of the Bible, then we understand ourselves as being in via, not possessors of eternal truth, but part of a living tradition of discipleship, on the way to the truth that will be perfectly known on the day when the Author of the story brings it to its end and consummation.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Truth and Authority in Modernity, Gracewing Publishing, 1996, p. 70 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are blessed as You reveal Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: sin is in all of us

2012-01-29T09:02:00.002-06:00

Sunday, January 29, 2012
Meditation:
    For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
    —Romans 11:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Nothing will help you as much in meeting people, no matter how far out they are or how caught up in the modern awfulness, than for them to perceive in you the attitude “we are both sinners.” This does not mean that we minimize sin, but we can still exhibit that we understand him because we stand in the same place. We can say “us” rather than just “you.” To project shock as though we are better slams the door shut. Each of us does not need to look beyond himself to know that men and women are sinners.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), No Little People, Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974, reprint, Crossway, 2003, p. 46 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You remind me, Lord, that my sin is no better than my neighbor’s.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aquinas: our beneficial ignorance

2012-01-28T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 28, 2012
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.
    —Ecclesiastes 9:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If all the predestined knew they were predestined, then all those not predestined would know they were not predestined from the very fact that they did not know if they were predestined. This would, in some way, lead them to despair. Now, considering those who are predestined, security is the mother of negligence; and if the predestined were certain about their predestination, they would be secure about their salvation. Consequently, they would not exercise so great care in avoiding evil. Hence, it has been wisely ordained by God’s providence that men should be ignorant of their predestination or reprobation.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274), Truth, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1994, p. 281-282 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your assurance is sufficient. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: chosen by God

2012-01-27T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 27, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus] was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
    —Acts 10:41 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow. The piercing truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it. God chooses us in order to use us.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of Luke, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956, p. 8 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I could not bear my cross were You not bearing it with me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: absolutely free

2012-01-26T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 26, 2012
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
    —Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is atonement that makes repentance, not repentance that makes atonement. Repentance comes because the Father of love has proved Himself a ‘Holy Father.’ He has closed the rent that sin had made; He offers a pardon that is a pardon, and that is absolutely free.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), from “God as Holy Father,” in Homiletic Review, v. XXXIII, I. K. Funk & D. S. Gregory, eds., New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1897, p. 236 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your forgiveness has turned me away from my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Sadgrove & Wright: universal salvation?

2012-01-25T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
    —Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Any theory which asserts universal salvation in Christ must involve not only the potential notion of “anonymous faith” but also some doctrine of a future state in which those whose religion has not made them “anonymous Christians”, and those who have professed and lived by no faith at all (a category often conveniently ignored in this context), are presented over and over again with the chance of faith in Christ. Such a theory is not only without scriptural warrant; it cuts clean across all that Scripture teaches about the historical nature of Christianity. Those who are saved at the last are those who are genuinely in Christ in this life.
    ... Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, in The Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 78 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only by grace can I be saved. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: honesty in prayer

2012-01-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
    —Ecclesiastes 12:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    ... if you lie to God’s Holy Spirit, you can scarcely wonder that He refuses you His comfort.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, p. 334 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have opened up the secrets of my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: sorrow

2012-01-23T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, spiritual writer, 1893
Meditation:
    To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
    They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
    Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
    —John 8:31-36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What sort of Christians are we that go about asking for the things of this life first, thinking that it shall make us prosperous to be Christians, and then a little higher asking for the things that pertain to the eternal prosperity, when the Great Master, who leaves us the great law, in whom our Christian life is spiritually set forth, has as His great symbol the cross, the cross, the sign of consecration and obedience? It is not simply suffering too. Christ does not stand primarily for suffering. Suffering is an accident. It does not matter whether you and I suffer. “Not enjoyment and not sorrow” is our life, not sorrow any more than enjoyment, but obedience and duty. If duty brings sorrow, let it bring sorrow. It did bring sorrow to the Christ.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 16 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I trust You with my future. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reeves: the common life of the Body

2012-01-22T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 22, 2012
Meditation:
    Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
    —Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whatever gifts we possess belong to the Body, and are useful only as they are used in the common life of the Church. All this is made very plain in the New Testament Epistles, for in them we are taught that in each local Christian community is a fellowship in which every member is to live in humility and in love to the brethren. Yet no local church is to live to itself. Again and again, local churches are reminded of their close relationship to one another, in life, work, worship, pain, and death. Not that such a relationship is to be regarded either as a matter of convenience or as a question of organization. On the contrary, this intimate relationship is seen as the direct outcome of the saving work of Christ. This unity with one another, and of local churches with each other, is the unity which belongs to the Body of Christ, arising from the unity of God Himself, uttered in the dying and rising again of Jesus, and now expressed in the order and! structure of the Church.
    ... Ambrose Reeves (1899-1980), Bishop of Johannesburg [1956], Church and Race in South Africa, David M. Paton, London: SCM Press, 1958, p. 31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Your Spirit, Lord, animates the whole church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Marshall: sons, not slaves

2012-01-21T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 21, 2012
    Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304
Meditation:
    “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
    —Isaiah 1:18-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    By giving humans freedom of will, the Creator has chosen to limit His own power. He risked the daring experiment of giving us the freedom to make good or bad decisions, to live decent or evil lives, because God does not want the forced obedience of slaves. Instead, He covets the voluntary love and obedience of sons who love Him for Himself.
    ... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 26 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create a willing heart in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rolle: love of the Lord

2012-01-20T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 20, 2012
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
    —Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The commandment of God is, that we love Our Lord in all our heart, in all our soul, in all our thought. In all our heart; that is, in all our understanding without erring. In all our soul; that is, in all our will without gainsaying. In all our thought; that is, that we think on Him without forgetting. In this manner is very love and true, that is work of man’s will. For love is a willful stirring of our thoughts unto God, so that it receive nothing that is against the love of Jesus Christ, and therewith that it be lasting in sweetness of devotion; and that is the perfection of this life.
    ... Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), The Commandments, in English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif, David Lyle Jeffrey, tr., Regent College Publishing, 1988, 73:8-9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people the purpose of fulfilling this commandment. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the wrath of God

2012-01-19T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 19, 2012
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    See, the day of the LORD is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.
    —Isaiah 13:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. Not only is it right for God to display anger at sin, but I find it impossible to understand how He could do otherwise.
    God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades or destroys.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1966, p. 111 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill me with intolerance for my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: Tune Thou my harp

2012-01-18T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
    —Revelation 14:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Tune Thou my harp;
There is not, Lord, could never be,
The skill in me.

Tune Thou my harp,
That it may play Thy melody,
Thy harmony.

Tune Thou my harp;
O Spirit, breathe Thy thought through me
As pleaseth Thee.
... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Rose from Brier [1933], London: SPCK, 1950, p. 128-129 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Fill my heart with Your song, Lord.

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Gore: God's will

2012-01-17T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    [Jesus] went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
    —Matthew 26:42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We do not know if it is God’s will that this or that person should recover from sickness, or this or that calamity should be averted. God is wiser than we are. We do not know whether it is God’s will that we should have rain that is so necessary for our crops. There are things like these that lie in a region of uncertainty into which the intelligence of man cannot penetrate. So then as the object of prayer is not to bring the divine will down to the human, but to lift the human up into correspondence with the divine, for all these uncertain things we can pray indeed, but uncertainly—‘If it be possible, let this or that come to pass; nevertheless, not my will, but Thine, be done.’
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Sermon on the Mount [1910], London: John Murray, 1905, p. 141 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to submit to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: life without leaving the world

2012-01-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 16, 2012
Meditation:
    Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
    —1 Peter 4:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is further objected that [Jesus] hath left us no example of that, which by many is esteemed the only religious state of life; viz. perfect retirement from the world, for the more devout serving of God, and freeing us from the temptations of the world, such as is that of monks and hermits; this, perhaps, may seem to some a great oversight and omission: but our Lord in great wisdom thought fit to give us a pattern of a quite different sort of life, which was, not to fly the conversation of men, and to live in a monastery or a wilderness, but to do good among men, to live in the world with great freedom, and with great innocency. He did, indeed, sometimes retire himself for the more free and private exercise of devotion, as we ought to do; but he passed his life chiefly in the conversation of men, that they might have all the benefit that was possible of his instruction and example. We read, that “he was carried into the wilderness to be tempted;” but not that he lived there to avoid temptation. He hath given us an example of denying the world, without leaving it.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. VIII, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CXC, p. 274 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown the way. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stevenson: for self-blame

2012-01-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 15, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
    —Luke 6:41-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s. Let us feel our offences with our hands, make them great and bright before us like the sun, make us eat them and drink them for our diet. Blind us to the offences of our beloved, cleanse them from our memories, take them out of our mouths for ever. Let all here before Thee carry and measure with the false balances of love, and be in their own eyes and in all conjunctures the most guilty. Help us at the same time with the grace of courage, that we be none of us cast down when we sit lamenting amid the ruins of our happiness or our integrity: touch us with fire from the altar, that we may be up and doing to rebuild our city: in the name and by the method of him in whose words of prayer we now conclude.
    ... Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), from “Prayers Written for Family Use at Vailima”, in The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, v. IV, London: T. & A. Constable for Longmans Green & Co.1896, p. 387 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lift up the least and humble the greatest. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: the persistence of election

2012-01-14T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 14, 2012
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
    —Jonah 1:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In reality (spiritual reality) it is much too simple to think that God offers his grace to man and man accepts or refuses. When God has graciously chosen a man his grace continues even though the man does not do what God has decided. On the other hand, this persistence of election... does not entail a negation of man’s will. God pursues this man, conducts him through his whole life, in order to bring about the consent of this man’s will to what God has decided.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 24 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank you, Lord, that You pursued me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hilary: divinity and eternity

2012-01-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 13, 2012
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.”
    —John 8:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We proclaim ... that the Father is eternal and the Son eternal, and demonstrate that the Son is God of all with an absolute, not a limited, preexistence; that these bold assaults of... blasphemous logic—He was born out of nothing, and He was not before He was born—are powerless against Him; that His eternity is consistent with sonship, and His sonship with eternity; that there was in Him no unique exemption from birth but a birth from everlasting, for, while birth implies a Father, Divinity is inseparable from eternity.
    ... St. Hilary (ca. 300-367?), On the Trinity, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. IX, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1902, p. 50 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: conveying the knowledge

2012-01-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 12, 2012
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness
    to a people yet unborn—
    for he has done it.
    —Psalm 22:30-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The religion of a hundred years ago or of two thousand years ago does not seem quaint, for men can speak to each other about their knowledge of God, unhindered by the barriers of centuries.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Knowledge of God, Harper & Brothers, 1939, p. 107 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You planned our salvation from the foundation of the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Denney: the authority of Jesus

2012-01-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
    Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
Meditation:
    Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
    —Matthew 9:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The displacement of ‘the Son of Man’ by ‘man’ [according to the recommendation of textual critics] has only a superficial plausibility in logic. The healing of the palsy by Jesus does not prove that man generically can forgive sins. The man who does the visible miracle in confirmation of his claim to do the invisible is to be taken at his word: but it is no more true that man generically can speak the word of forgiveness with divine effect than that man generically can effectively bid the lame walk. The only question raised, and the only question settled, is one concerning the power claimed by Jesus; and it is settled, not by bringing Jesus under the general category of humanity, but by an act of Jesus Himself which was as impossible for men in general as the forgiveness of sins. It is not any man, but only He who has the right to think of Himself as the Son of Man, who can forgive sins upon the earth.
    ... James Denney (1856-1917), Jesus and the Gospel: Christianity justified in the mind of Christ, New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1908, p. 275 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, to You all power is given. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wand: from authority to persuasion

2012-01-10T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
    —Matthew 13:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Almost everywhere political secularization was accompanied at length by a general decrease in religious observance. Theological matters ceased to be, if they had ever genuinely been, the main interest of the people. This does not mean that religion died out: far from it. But it became the interest, not of the whole, but of a section of the people. The Church, instead of being a recognized ruling authority, became what its Founder said it was, a little yeast in a large lump of dough. In some countries it barely maintained the right to exist; in others it had to adapt its methods to new conditions. But wherever possible it has continued openly to pursue the same ends, and has not ceased to declare what it believes to be the will of God even in the political sphere. Indeed, we may recognize a gain in the new situation. What it could once do by authority, it now seeks to do by persuasion.
    ... J. W. C. Wand (1885-1977), The Church Today, Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1960 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your church to proclaim Your truth boldly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: living by the Spirit

2012-01-09T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 9, 2012
Meditation:
    ... those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
    —Romans 8:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    But when does flesh receive the bread which He calls His flesh? The faithful know and receive the Body of Christ if they labor to be the body of Christ; and they become the body of Christ if they study to live by the Spirit of Christ: for that which lives by the Spirit of Christ is the body of Christ.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, vol. ii, Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. xi of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1884, tract. 26.13, p. 376 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Spirit of God, lead me! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Elliot: the extraordinary God

2012-01-08T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 8, 2012
    Commemoration of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, martyrs, Ecuador, 1956
Meditation:
    [God] chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
    —1 Corinthians 1:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God.
    ... Jim Elliot (1927-1956), The Journals of Jim Elliot, ed. Elisabeth Elliot, Revell, 1990, p. 98 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Amen. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: in the Presence

2012-01-07T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 7, 2012
Meditation:
    For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
    —2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we do not pray, we fail to realize that we are in the presence of God.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), Prayer, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p. 15 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me an attitude of prayer wherever I go. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brainerd: where to advance the kingdom

2012-01-06T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 6, 2012
    EPIPHANY
Meditation:
    When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
    —Luke 5:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Of late, I have thought much of having the kingdom of Christ advanced in the world; but now I saw I had enough to do within myself. The Lord be merciful to me a sinner, and wash my soul!
    ... David Brainerd (1718-1747), entry for April 8, 1743, Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd, New Haven: S. Converse, 1822, p. 96 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I long for the day when You finish the work You began in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Joad: faith and reason

2012-01-05T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 5, 2012
Meditation:
    Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise.
    —1 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Intellect can light up only a small area of the universe. For my part, I should subscribe to the familiar paradox that the more we know, the more we are conscious of our ignorance; the further the intellect has traveled, the smaller it seems relatively to the distance still to be traveled... The intellect does, indeed, take us part of the way; we have no other mode of conveyance; and, in taking us as far as it does, it justifies us in taking the rest on trust... In following the religious account of the universe beyond the point at which it leaves reason behind, and trusting to it as an explanation of the many things that pass our understanding, we are accepting on faith conclusions which are not demonstrated by reason. In other words, we are acting as if a hypothesis were true which, at the moment at which we act upon it, is still a hypothesis and not a truth. Nevertheless, it is, I suggest, knowledge, the knowledge which we possess already and which reason has won for us, that makes it reasonable to do so.
    ... C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), The Recovery of Belief, London: Faber and Faber, 1952, p. 19-20 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have granted Your people the means to have true wisdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carson: the softened gospel

2012-01-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Meditation:
    Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!”
    —John 8:42-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is vitally important to recognize that philosophical pluralism has exerted a dramatic “softening” influence on many people who would disavow radical religious pluralism. It is hard, for instance, to deny the influence of pluralism on evangelical preachers who increasingly reconstruct the “gospel” along the lines of felt needs, knowing that such a presentation will be far better appreciated than one that articulates truth with hard edges (i.e., that insists that certain contrary things are false), or that warns of the wrath to come. How far can such reconstruction go before what is preached is no longer the gospel in any historical or biblical sense?
    ... D. A. Carson (b. 1946), The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism [1996], Zondervan, 2002, p. 30 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enable Your people to speak the undiluted Gospel. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Flavel: discovering God's will

2012-01-03T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 3, 2012
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”
    —John 7:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If, therefore, in doubtful cases, you would discover God’s will, govern yourselves in your search after it by these rules.
    1. Get the true fear of God upon your hearts; be really afraid of offending him; God will not hide his mind from such a soul...
    2. Study the word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less. The word is a light to your feet...
    3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your duty to practise...
    4. Pray for illumination and direction in the way that you should go; beg the Lord to guide you in straits, and that he would not suffer you to fall into sin...
    5. And this being done, follow providence so far as it agrees with the word, and no farther. There is no use to be made of providence against the word, but in subserviency to it.
    ... John Flavel (1628-1691), Divine Conduct [1677], in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. IV, London: J. Mathews, 1799, p. 470 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have given us Your true word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gregory of Nazianzus

2012-01-02T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 2, 2012
    Feast of Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Teachers, 379 & 389
    Commemoration of Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, Mystic, Staretz, 1833
Meditation:
    But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
    —Hebrews 2:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What He was, He laid aside; what He was not, He assumed.
    ... St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389/390), Oration 37.2, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament, v. IVa, John 1-10, Joel C. Elowsky & Thomas C. Oden, InterVarsity Press, 2006, p. 14 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have truly become one of us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John Chrysostom: good resolutions

2012-01-01T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 1, 2012
    Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
    —John 15:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407), quoted in Catena aurea, v. IV, part 1, Thomas Aquinas, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1845, p. 67 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, that You use Your people for Your purposes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wycliffe: speak plainly

2011-12-31T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 31, 2011
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
    —Luke 21:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thus by the authority of the law of God men should speak her words as God’s law speaketh, and strange not in speech from understanding of the people, and always beware that the people understand well, and so use common speech in their own person; and if they speak in Christ’s person [the] words of his law, look that they declare him, for dread of privy errors.
    And scorn we the arguments that fools make here, that by the same power should we speak thus, for God speaks thus the words of his law. Such apes likeness passes beast’s folly, for they would bring by this that each man were God. And so have we leave to speak as him liketh, [though] we speak not aye so by the same authority; these words that God speaketh should we always grant, and declare to him true understanding.
    ... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384), Select English Works of John Wyclif, v. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869, p. 78-79 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You enable Your people to speak the Gospel clearly. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rieu: the Magna Carta of the human spirit

2011-12-30T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 30, 2011
Meditation:
    Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”
    —Acts 5:29-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let the Gospels speak. Of what I have learnt from these documents in the course of my long task, I will say nothing now. Only this, that they bear the seal of the Son of Man and God, they are the Magna Charta of the human spirit. Were we to devote to their comprehension a little of the selfless enthusiasm that is now expended on the riddle of our physical surroundings, we would cease to say that Christianity is coming to an end—we might even feel that it had only just begun.
    ... E. V. Rieu (1887-1972), The Four Gospels, London: Penguin Books, 1952, p. xxxiii (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your gospel goes forth from the mouths of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: God's majesty

2011-12-29T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 29, 2011
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
    —Judges 6:22-23 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For when we see those, who before his appearance stood secure and firm, so astonished and affrighted at the manifestation of his glory, as to faint and almost expire through fear,—we must infer that man is never sufficiently affected with a knowledge of his own meanness, till he has compared himself with the Divine Majesty.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.i.3, p. 48 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we are small, but You are great. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Havergal: A happy, happy Christmas

2011-12-28T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 28, 2011
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
    —Luke 1:39-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
A happy, happy Christmas,
    And a happy, happy year!
Oh, we have not deserved it,
    And yet we need not fear.
For Jesus has deserved it,
    And so for Jesus’ sake,
This cup of joy and blessing
    With grateful hand we take.
    ... Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal, New York: E.P. Dutton & co., 1888, p. 168 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    We greet You with joy, Lord! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: mind Heaven

2011-12-27T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 27, 2011
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    ... when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
    —1 Peter 5:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 104 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fix my eyes on heaven. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: testing faith

2011-12-26T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 26, 2011
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
    —Hebrews 6:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some relate ... that the eagle tries the eyes of her young by turning them to the sun; which if they cannot look steadily on, she rejects them as spurious. We may truly try our faith by immediate intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness. Direct faith to act itself immediately and directly on the incarnation of Christ and His mediation; and if it be not the right kind and race it will turn its eyes aside to anything else.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 323 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Increase my faith, Lord, so that it will stand the test. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: Christmas

2011-12-25T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, December 25, 2011
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
    Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
    —Revelation 5:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
Come let us join our cheerful songs,
    With angels round the throne;
Ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
    But all their joys are one.

Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry,
To be exalted thus:
Worthy the Lamb, our lips reply,
For he was slain for us.

Jesus is worthy to receive
Honour and pow’r divine;
And blessings, more than we can give,
Be, Lord, for ever thine.

Let all who dwell above the sky,
And air, and earth, and seas,
Conspire to lift thy glories high,
And speak thine endless praise.

The whole creation join in one,
    To bless the sacred name,
Of him who sits upon the throne,
    And to adore the Lamb.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book I, hymn 62, p. 321 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken away our sin.

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Irenaeus: like us

2011-12-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 24, 2011
    Christmas Eve
Meditation:
    Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
    —1 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.
    ... Irenaeus (c.130-c.200), from Adversus Haereses, v. praef. (ad fin.), in The Early Christian Fathers, Henry Scowcroft Bettenson, London: Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 106 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are one of us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Drummond: Bright portals of the sky

2011-12-23T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 23, 2011
Meditation:
[Jesus:] “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
—John 14:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
Bright portals of the sky,
Emboss’d with sparkling stars,
Doors of eternity,
With diamantine bars,
Your arras rich uphold,
Loose all your bolts and springs,
Ope wide your leaves of gold,
That in your roofs may come the King of Kings.

O well-spring of this All!
Thy Father’s image vive;
Word, that from nought did call
What is, doth reason, live;
The soul’s eternal food,
Earth’s joy, delight of heaven;
All truth, love, beauty, good:
To thee, to thee be praises ever given!

O glory of the heaven!
O sole delight of earth!
To thee all power be given,
God’s uncreated birth!
Of mankind lover true,
Indearer of his wrong,
Who doth the world renew,
Still be thou our salvation and our song!
... William Drummond (1585-1649), The Poems of William Drummond of Hawthornden, v. II, London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894, p. 21-24 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, may I praise You forever!

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Bonhoeffer: a picture of Advent

2011-12-22T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 22, 2011
Meditation:
    The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...
    —Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in a letter, November 21, 1943, A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 490 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have released me from my prison. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jones: the unrespectability of need

2011-12-21T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Meditation:
    While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
    —Mark 2:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In our Ashrams of East and West, places of spiritual retreat, we begin with what we call “The Morning of the Open Heart,” in which we tell our needs... We give four or five hours to this catharsis. The reaction of one member, who listened to it for the first time, was: “Good gracious, have we all the disrupted people in the country here?” My reply was: “No, you have a cross section of the church life honestly revealed.” In the ordinary church, it is suppressed by respectability, by a desire to appear better than we really are.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Conversion, New York: Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 10-11 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to accept _____ and _____ in the fellowship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Grou: fidelity in little things

2011-12-20T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Meditation:
    Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
    —Philippians 2:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Little things come daily, hourly, within our reach, and they are not less calculated to set forward our growth in holiness, than are the greater occasions which occur but rarely;—in some ways we may turn them to more profit, inasmuch as they do not war against humility, or tend to feed self-conceit. Moreover, fidelity in trifles, and an earnest seeking to please God in little matters, is a test of real devotion and love... Let your aim be to please our dear Lord perfectly in little things, and to attain a spirit of childlike simplicity and dependence.
    ... Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), The Hidden Life of the Soul, London: Rivingtons, 1870, p. 2-3 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the child-like heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Luther: clothed

2011-12-19T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 19, 2011
Meditation:
    Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
    —Isaiah 53:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours but Christ’s, on whom God hath laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ’s righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays his hand upon us, and we are healed; he casts his mantle on us, and we are clothed; he is the glorious Saviour, blessed for ever.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), remarks on Thesis 37, Resolutiones et Responsiones, 1518, in History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Germany, Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné, London: Walther, 1838, p. 380 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    The Savior is here! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Meynell: Given, not lent

2011-12-18T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, December 18, 2011
    Advent IV
Meditation:
    And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
    Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
    “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:8-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
Given, not lent,
And not withdrawn—once sent,
This Infant of mankind, this One,
Is still the little welcome Son.

New every year,
New born and newly dear,
He comes with tidings and a song,
The ages long, the ages long.

Even as the cold
Keen winter grows not old,
As childhood is so fresh, foreseen,
And spring in the familiar green.

Sudden as sweet
Come the expected feet.
All joy is young, and new all art,
And He, too, Whom we have by heart.
... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), Collected Poems of Alice Meynell, London: Burns & Oates, 1913, p. 32 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, You have given us Your Favor!

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Buechner: the existence of God

2011-12-17T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 17, 2011
    Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928
Meditation:
    —God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
    —1 Timothy 6:15b-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is as impossible for us to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, revised, HarperCollins, 1993, p. 36 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, we know You through Your Son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: Father, the Christian name for God

2011-12-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 16, 2011
Meditation:
    Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
    —Galatians 4:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctly Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), Knowing God, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, p. 182 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Father, You have made me Your child. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Judson: unconditional forgiveness

2011-12-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 15, 2011
Meditation:
    But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
    —Matthew 1:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Divine forgiveness is absolutely unconditional. We are not forgiven because we are not very bad. We are not forgiven because we are trying to be good. We are not forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. We are not forgiven because we have suffered; as the iniquity of Jerusalem was pardoned because she had received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. In the Old Testament forgiveness is always conditioned upon the repentance and suffering of the sinner; in the New Testament repentance grows out of forgiveness. We are forgiven because we are sinners. Forgiveness is the form God’s love takes when it rests upon sin.
    ... Edward Judson (1844-1914), The Outlook, v. XCVII, Lyman Abbott, ed., Outlook Co., 1911, p. 748 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I believe Your offer of forgiveness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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John of the Cross: blocking the road to perfection

2011-12-14T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 14, 2011
    Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591
Meditation:
    Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
    —Romans 6:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    However high be your endeavours, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will—unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself—not one step will you advance on the road to perfection.
    ... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 100 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, use me to carry out Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: mind fixed on God

2011-12-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 13, 2011
    Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304
    Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784
Meditation:
    Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
    —Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O Lord, grant unto me that am now about to return to the common comforts and business of the world, such moderation in all enjoyments, such diligence in honest labour, and such purity of mind, that, amidst the changes, miseries, or pleasures of life, I may keep my mind fixed upon Thee, and improve every day in grace, till I shall be received into thy kingdom of eternal happiness.
    ... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Prayers and Meditations, London: Verner, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806, p. 29 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my eyes constantly gaze upon You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: because He loved it

2011-12-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 12, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
    —Matthew 5:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I love poverty because He loved it. I love riches because they afford me the means of helping the very poor. I keep faith with everybody; I do not render evil to those who wrong me, but I wish them a situation like mine, in which I receive neither good nor evil from men. I try to be just, true, sincere, and faithful to all men; I have a tender heart for those to whom God has more closely united me; and whether I am alone, or seen by people, I do all my actions in the sight of God, who must judge them, and to whom I have consecrated them all.
    These are my sentiments; and every day of my life, I bless my Redeemer, who has implanted them in me, and who, out of a man full of weakness, of miseries, of lust, of pride, and of ambition, has made a man free from all these evils by the power of His grace, to which all the glory of it is due, as of myself I have only misery and error.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #550, p. 178 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown me my error; now help rid me of it. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: O Jesus Christ, babe, man, eternal son

2011-12-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, December 11, 2011
    Advent III
Meditation:
    But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
    —Titus 3:4-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
O Jesus Christ, babe, man, eternal son,
    Take pity! we are poor where thou art rich:
Our hearts are small; and yet there is not one
    In all thy father’s noisy nursery which,
    Merry, or mourning in its narrow niche,
        Needs not thy father’s heart, this very now,
        With all his being’s being, even as thou!
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), The Poetical Works of George Macdonald, v. 2, London: Chatto & Windus, 1893, p. 336 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enlarge my heart to receive You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: chilling faith

2011-12-10T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 10, 2011
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.”
    —Luke 6:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Seeds of Contemplation, London: Hollis & Carter, 1949, New Directions. 1949, p. 105 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forbid that I should lead another astray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: pilot plant

2011-12-09T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 9, 2011
Meditation:
    Is Christ divided?
    —1 Corinthians 1:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church ought to be a “pilot plant” where men can see in our congregations and missions a substantial healing of all the divisions, the alienations which man’s rebellion has produced.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), Pollution and the Death of Man [1970], reprint, Good News Publishers, 1992, p. 80 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You healing presence is uniting the body. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Coverdale: The blessed son of God only

2011-12-08T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 8, 2011
Meditation:
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
—Psalm 85:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
The blessed son of God only
In a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood
Was clothed that everlasting good

The Lord Christ Jesu, God’s son dear,
Was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery,
That we might live eternally.

All this did he for us freely,
For to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore,
And give him thanks for evermore.
... Miles Coverdale (ca.1488-1568), Ancient English Christmas Carols, 1400-1700, Edith Rickert, New York: Duffield & Co., 1915, p. 192-193 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Thank You, Lord, for coming to us.

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Ambrose: true repentance

2011-12-07T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 7, 2011
    Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397
Meditation:
    What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
    —Romans 6:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    True repentance is to cease from sin.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), attributed
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the heart to flee from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: true devotion

2011-12-06T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 6, 2011
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
    Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
    —Luke 9:61-62 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If therefore we desire to live unto God, it is necessary to bring our whole life under this law, to make His glory the sole rule and measure of our acting in every employment of life. For there is no other true devotion, but this of living devoted to God in the common business of our lives.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 59 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your will is my sole law. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: the story for us

2011-12-05T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 5, 2011
Meditation:
    And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
    —Hebrews 3:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    History is to be understood as the patient wrestling of God with a stupid, deluded, and rebellious people—stupid and rebellious precisely because they insist on seeing themselves as the center of the story.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Truth and Authority in Modernity, Gracewing Publishing, 1996, p. 38-39 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to cast away my unbelief. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: Advent

2011-12-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, December 4, 2011
    Advent II
    Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637
Meditation:
    “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
    —Luke 2:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life, however, is Advent—that is, a time of waiting for the ultimate, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when all people are brothers and sisters and one rejoices in the words of the angels: “On earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests.” Learn to wait, because he has promised to come. “I stand at the door...” We however call to him: “Yes, come soon, Lord Jesus!”
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 186 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant Your people patience to await Your return. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Engstrom: the Word in our lives

2011-12-03T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 3, 2011
    Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552
Meditation:
    “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.
    —Isaiah 59:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The injection of the Word into our lives provides individual or corporate direction in all we do and say.
    ... Ted W. Engstrom (1916-2006), former president, World Vision US, in a private communication from World Vision
Quiet time reflection:
    Your word, Lord, has given me life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: view from the summit

2011-12-02T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 2, 2011
Meditation:
Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
    —Psalm 90:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This, of course, is what religion is about: this adherence to God, this confident dependence on that which is unchanging. This is the more abundant life, which in its own particular language and own particular way, it calls us to live. Because it is our part in the one life in the whole universe of spirits, our share in the great drive towards Reality, the tendency of all life to seek God, Who made it for Himself, and now incites and guides it, we are already adapted to it, just as a fish is adapted to live in the sea. This view of our situation fills us with a certain awed and humble gladness. It delivers us from all niggling fuss about ourselves, prevents us from feeling self-important about our own little spiritual adventures; and yet makes them worth while as part of one great spiritual adventure.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Spiritual Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937, reprinted, Morehouse Publishing, 1985, p. 22-23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace has made us part of Your eternal plan. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hromadka: Christian civiization?

2011-12-01T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 1, 2011
    Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916
Meditation:
    [Paul:] “In the past, [God] let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”
    —Acts 14:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We cannot pass our responsibility on to politicians, diplomats, economists, technicians, scientists, and secular ideologists. We ourselves are obliged to think about the problems of the form of responsible society and of our own contribution to its creation. Let us avoid the impression that this responsible society will be identical with Christian society. There has been, is, and will be no Christian society, just as there is no Christian state, Christian economy, or Christian civilization. The new earth and the new heaven which we expect in faith will not be the work of human hands, but a creation of God’s mercy and justice. And these are essentially eschatological concepts. Christian civilization is an illusion, and every attempt to fight in its name against so-called un-Christian efforts—social and political ideas—is a self-deception and a grave danger to the church itself.
    ... J. L. Hromadka (1889-1969), The Church and Theology in Today’s Troubled Times, Prague: Ecumenical Council of Churches in Czechoslovakia, 1956, p. 80-81 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead Your church to speak truth to society. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: obedience

2011-11-30T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 30, 2011
    Feast of Andrew the Apostle
Meditation:
    Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
    —1 John 3:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from grace.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.xiii.1, p. 140 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your spirit keeps me seeking Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: unsaintly saints

2011-11-29T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Meditation:
    Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
    —Mark 10:42-44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Unsaintly saints are the tragedy of Christianity. People of the world usually pass through the circle of disciples to reach Christ, and if they find those disciples severe and sharp-tongued they can hardly be blamed if they sigh and turn away from Him... The low state of religion in our day is largely due to the lack of public confidence in religious people.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Of God and Men, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1960, p. 85 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, soften our hearts towards Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moody: driven by love

2011-11-28T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 28, 2011
Meditation:
    Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
    —1 John 4:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do not think you can do any work for Christ and hope to succeed if you are not impelled by love.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), “To the work! To the work!”: Exhortations to Christians, Chicago: F. H. Revell, 1884, p. 31 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill my heart with mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Adams: Advent letter

2011-11-27T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 27, 2011
    Advent I
Meditation:
    “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
    —Daniel 7:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Well, here it is Advent, and the Christmas season will soon be upon us. When He came the first time, it was as a Baby—showing us an aspect of His nature very suited to our understanding. Now that we are grown (even if not very mature), we look forward to the return of that same Jesus who went away for a while: Man when He left, Man still, Man when He shall come back. May we all see Him as He is, now and forever.
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), from a letter, 1975
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Yourself known to us as a Man. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Watts: the divine perfections

2011-11-26T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 26, 2011
    Commemoration of Isaac Watts, Hymnwriter, 1748
Meditation:
Sing the glory of his name;
    make his praise glorious!
    —Psalm 66:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
The Divine Perfections.

How shall I praise th’ eternal God,
That Infinite Unknown?
Who can ascend his high abode,
Or venture near his throne?

The great invisible! He dwells
Conceal’d in dazzling light:
But his all-searching eye reveals
The secrets of the night.

Those watchful eyes that never sleep,
Survey the world around;
His wisdom is the boundless deep,
Where all our thoughts are drown’d.

He knows no shadow of a change,
Nor alters his decrees;
Firm as a rock his truth remains,
To guard his promises.

Justice, upon a dreadful throne,
Maintains the rights of God;
While mercy sends her pardons down,
Bought with a Saviour’s blood.

Now to my soul immortal King,
    Speak some forgiving word;
Then ’twill be double joy to sing
    The glories of my Lord.
    ... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book II, hymn 166, p. 470 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    With the congregation, Lord, I say Amen!

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Thomas a Kempis: arm yourself

2011-11-25T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 25, 2011
    Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
Meditation:
    Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
    —Ephesians 6:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Arm yourself like a man against the devil’s assaults. Curb your appetite and you will more easily curb every inclination of the flesh. Never be completely unoccupied, but read or write or pray or meditate or do something for the common good.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xix.5, p. 57-58 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me Your defense against evil inclinations. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Babcock: eternity now

2011-11-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 24, 2011
    Thanksgiving (U.S.)
Meditation:
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
    —Psalm 46:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No clocks keep time tomorrow. Springs push and hands point now. Now is the appointed time for clocks as well as people. God never helped anyone tomorrow. He is a very present help. What is eternity, but God’s now? Let us then live the eternal life with God now.
    ... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 44-45 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forgive me for ignoring Your constant presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the implantation of holiness

2011-11-23T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
    Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
Meditation:
    [Jesus in prayer:] “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
    —John 17:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and realizing of the Gospel in our souls.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), IV.1 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 370-371 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place Your word on the throne of my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: a hint of the truth

2011-11-22T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 22, 2011
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!" he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”
    “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”
    Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”
    Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”
    —Acts 26:24-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 35 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to discern Your truth wherever it might be seen. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: finding a Master

2011-11-21T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 21, 2011
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.”
    —Matthew 23:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is useless to preach the Kingdom when we do not carry into the centre of life the control of a King. The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master. And the first charge of every Church is to offer, nay to mediate, Him.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), Positive Preaching and Modern Mind, New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1907, p.42 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cast all other masters away. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: cramped quarters

2011-11-20T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 20, 2011
    Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
    Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
Meditation:
    Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
    —Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, I.vi., p. 5 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my heart is open to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbolt: on holy orders

2011-11-19T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 19, 2011
    Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
    Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
    Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
Meditation:
    Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
    —1 Peter 5:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Holy Orders is not a profession which we enter expecting an advance, or some sort of recognition as a right after so many years of work. But it is rather the giving up of self into the hands of God, without stint and without reserve, and letting Him set the work. It is the recognition of the fact that God has many kinds of work to be done, and that the best paid are not always the most honourable... To enter or exercise the ministry with a view to preferment is like marrying for money and not for love.
    ... W. C. E. Newbolt (1844-1930), Speculum Sacerdotum, London: Longmans, Green, 1894, p. 112-113,144 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lead me to my tasks. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Struther: Lord of all hopefulness

2011-11-18T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 18, 2011
Meditation:
In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to those he loves.
    —Psalm 127:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
Whose trust, ever childlike, no cares could destroy,
Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.

Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
Be there at our labours, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day.

Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.

Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.
... Jan Struther (1901-1953), first published in Songs of Praise, enl. ed., Ralph Vaughan Williams, et al., ed., Oxford University Press, 1931, n. 564, p. 164 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
Lord Who grants rest, Your love sends me gracious sleep.

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Barth: the One who is real

2011-11-17T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 17, 2011
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
    —1 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Resurrection” is the word that, of all words in the Bible, wants to tell us in the strongest and most unambiguous way: God is not a thought, God is not a word, God is not a feeling. God is the Great One, the True One, the Real and Living One, who waits to meet us precisely at that point where our thoughts about him end.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), from “He Himself” in Come Holy Spirit: Sermons, New York: Round Table Press, 1933, reprint, Mowbrays, 1978, p. 162 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the one true God. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: entry into the community

2011-11-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 16, 2011
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
    —1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday] It was inconceivable that a Christian taught by St. Paul could think of himself as obtaining a personal salvation by himself. He became one of the brethren. He shared in the common sacraments. The Church was not an invisible body formed of unknown ‘believers’. Men were admitted by their baptism into a very visible society, liable to be attacked by very visible foes. The Apostle who preached to them was a member of it, and he preached as a member of it, and as a member of it he invited them to enter it, to share its privileges and its burdens, its glory and its shame. Entrance into it was guarded by a very definite and unmistakable sacrament.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us into true community with one another. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: Paul not individualistic

2011-11-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Meditation:
    Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
    —Galatians 1:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is one ... aspect of St. Paul’s preaching which is often taken for granted, but is certainly not true—that the Gospel of St. Paul was purely individualistic. To the heathen crowd St. Paul addressed himself as to a mass of souls from amongst which he was to gather the elect children of God. But he did not approach them as an isolated prophet: he came as an Apostle of the Church of God, and he did not simply seek to gather out individual souls from amongst the heathen; he gathered them into the society of which he was a member. He did not teach them that they would find salvation by themselves alone, but that they would find it in the perfecting of the Body of Christ. Souls were not invited to enter into an isolated solitary religious life of communion with Christ: they were invited to enter the society in which the Spirit manifested Himself and in which they would share in the communication of His life. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me know my bonds to the brethren. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Vaughan: communion

2011-11-14T02:00:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 14, 2011
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
    —John 6:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
        O drink and bread,
        Which strikes death dead,
The food of man’s immortal being!
        Under veils here
        Thou art my cheer,
Present and sure without my seeing.
    ... Henry Vaughan (1622-1695), The Poetical Works of Henry Vaughan, Boston: Osgood, 1871, p. 262 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, for the gift of Your body and blood. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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More: His law is right

2011-11-13T02:00:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 13, 2011
    Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836
Meditation:
The fear of the LORD is clean,
    enduring for ever:
the judgments of the LORD are true
    and righteous altogether.
    —Psalm 19:9 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We are born knowing nothing and with much striving we learn but a little; yet all the while we are bound by laws that hearken to no plea of ignorance, and measure out their rewards and punishments with calm indifference. In such a state, humility is the virtue of men, and their only defense; to walk humbly with God, never doubting, whatever befall, that His will is good, and that His law is right.
    ... Paul Elmer More (1864-1937), Pages from an Oxford Diary, Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972, c1937, excerpt included in The Questing Spirit, Halford E. Luccock & Frances Brentano, New York: Coward-McCann, 1947, p. 602 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown us truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: straight from the Father

2011-11-12T02:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 12, 2011
Meditation:
    [Daniel] said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”
    —Daniel 2:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To the children of God everything comes directly from their Father’s hand, no matter who or what may have been the apparent agents. There are no “second causes” for them.
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life, Boston: Willard Tract Repository, 1875, p. 84 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the source for all goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brooks: Christianity is Christ

2011-11-11T02:00:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 11, 2011
    Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397
Meditation:
    May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
    —Galatians 6:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our religion is not a system of ideas about Christ. It is Christ.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Light of the World, and Other Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1904, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    By Your Spirit, we praise You, Lord Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: tragic idealist?

2011-11-10T02:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 10, 2011
    Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461
Meditation:
    Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
    They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
    “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
    Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
    —Luke 9:18-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is easy to criticise the many failings of the Church; it is all too easy to criticise the lives of those who profess and call themselves Christians; but I should say that it is almost impossible to read the Gospels thoroughly with adult, serious attention and then dismiss the central Figure as a mere human prophet or a tragic idealist. The reaction to such a study may indeed prove to be conversion or open hostility, but it would at least mean the end of childish and ill-informed attacks upon what is supposed to be the Christian religion.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. i, p. 12 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help Your church to show forth the truth of Christ. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Erasmus: food for the soul

2011-11-09T02:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
    Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433
Meditation:
    Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
    —Colossians 4:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let [the student of Scripture] approach the New Testament, not with an unholy curiosity, but with reverence; bearing in mind that his first and only aim and object should be that he may catch and be changed into the spirit of what he there learns. It is the food of the soul; and to be of use, must not rest only in the memory or sink into the stomach, but must pierce through the very depths of the heart and mind.
    ... Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), quoted from the introduction to his Greek New Testament, in “The Reformers of 1498”, ch. VI, by Frederic Seebohm, The Fortnightly Review, v. VI, George Henry Lewes, ed., London: Chapman and Hall, 1866, p. 185 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a spirit to receive Your holy word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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